Utapao Airport in Pattaya ?

Just wondering as I've never used it before but when traveling to or from Phuket to Pattaya and assuming the one flight a day timings suit etc ( and you don't mind the no shops thing etc ) is it handy / better / easier / closer / quicker ( you name it :-) maybe going from Utapao Airport to Phuket or is it really just as handy nipping on up the road now in the nice new low cost coach to Suvarnabhumi to go from there ??? Any thoughts ?

[colmx]

I vote for Suvarnabhumi

The journey from U tapao is around 1 hour anyway and if you are relying on a minibus to bring you to town the journey can take even longer... as the minibus will take a tour of the hotels in pattaya and jomtien... Your hotel will inevitably be the last thet they visit!

And besides that the flights from Suvarnabhumi will be less expensive

[Irish1972]

Yes I used it once also for a trip to Phuket, BKK is the better option in my opinion

[lonelywombat]

It depends on whether you are a minibus man or use a taxi. The taxi cost me 500 baht and was a little over 20 minutes. A friend that I bumped into on the same flight, had walked to the bus pick up point and had a boring hotel to hotel trip, and said never again. 90 minutes from hotel to airport.That was to save about 300 baht.

As I use the morning flight to drop into Koh Samui, and the afternoon flight non stop home I find it very convenient.

Because the airport is very small, there is little time wasted waiting around,

The big trap is not having a prebooked taxi waiting for you on your return. There is rarely more than one or two taxis for hire, so you will be stuck with the minibus for return to your hotel.

[gerefan2]

Go along with Lonley here. Done it many times.
Take a taxi both ways , actually about 40 mins, and no queues at the Airport. No long walks and somewhere to sit, unlike Savannaboom.
You wont regret it although it will cost a bit more than the bus to Savanaboom.

Thanks guys, so yep, if I hit Pattaya this time round again I think I'll definitely give it a try as due to my usually zipping around a few different Countries each time during on my trips I can usually see larger corporate airports far enough by the time I'm done - and yes most definitely a taxi will be the order of the day without a doubt !

[lonelywombat]

Thanks guys, so yep, if I hit Pattaya this time round again I think I'll definitely give it a try as due to my usually zipping around a few different Countries each time during on my trips

If you are going to do some international zipping, there were a number of flights into/out of Utapoa that could save a lot of time. BKK Air flies only to KS and Phuket

Other airlines may have been cut back since the GFC

When you do your plans please update here, any options for flights.